TOP OF THE SIXTH

CARTOON BREAKS OUT

AT HOCKEY GAME

For the people who have complained that they couldn't see the puck during TV hockey games, Fox introduced a computer-assisted puck at the NHL All-Star Game. Some people thought it was a technological advance. Others thought it made the telecast look like a cartoon.

In the Washington Post, Norman Chad said it was "an attempt to assist viewers in seeing where the puck is, much as Fox's laugh track on 'Married . . . With Children' is an attempt to allow viewers to know where the jokes are."

On the TV screen, the puck had a red comet trail when it traveled at high speeds. Fox sometimes posted the speed of the puck in the corner of the screen. Says Chad: "People, people, people -- we need to know this information like we need to know hang time on punts or the dew point from weathercasters.

"I still say the only way to make hockey easier to watch is to replace the darn puck with a beach ball, but your 'hockey purists' generally balk at such a notion."

OPEN-DOOR POLICY: From Carmen Policy, president of the 49ers, after announcing that Bill Walsh was returning to the organization as "administrative assistant": "I only had one doubt about this decision. That was five minutes before this press conference, when I walked into my office and found Bill in my chair with his feet on my desk."

-- Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim, after the Blizzard of '96 forced a two-day postponement of the Orangemen's game at Rutgers: "Right now we're just happy to be back home -- in a town where they know how to use snowplows."

-- According to Golf magazine, here are Bruce Lietzke's top two ways to spend a Saturday afternoon without playing golf: "1. Sitting with my wife and family in a boat in the middle of any lake. 2. Sitting with my dog in a boat in the middle of any lake."

-- Florida Marlins general manager Dave Dombrowski pointed out that last season his club was nine games over .500 from the All-Star break on. "Unfortunately," he said, "the league insisted on counting the first two months of the season."